Music chief adds his support to street campaign
A CAMPAIGN to keep Cardiff ’s Womanby Street the centre of the city’s independent music scene has been boosted by one of the industry’s most powerful executives.
Former Labour MP Michael Dugher – now chief executive of UK Music – has been in Cardiff to back the Save Womanby Street Campaign.
Flanked by Cardiff Labour MPs Kevin Brennan and Jo Stevens, who had arranged the visit, he said he was keen that the music industry umbrella body got behind efforts to preserve and support the city’s under-threat live music quarter.
Campaigners formed the Save Womanby Street group in March as a result of growing concerns about the future of the city’s music hub, which is renowned for its rich cultural diversity.
Mr Dugher visited Womanby Street to meet organisers of the campaign to hear more about the problems the street has faced, which included the closure of venues, threats from noise complaints and a proposed residential development.
He said: “Live performance at small, local gigs is the engine room of the music industry and we need to take action to protect this important part of the economy.
“Grass-roots venues are where the stadium bands of tomorrow learn their craft. Without them we lose that vital pipeline.
“They are also accessible, giving people a chance to see live music spontaneously without booking tickets months in advance – and at an affordable price.”
And when pressed on who music fans should vote for in the forthcoming General Election to represent their views, he said: “Given I was a Labour MP I would probably say don’t vote for anyone else but in fairness, as a neutral now, we’re putting pressure on all the parties and I think we were very pleased with the content of the manifestos, but the Labour Party manifesto is particularly strong in terms of its commitment to agent of change, business rates and tax credits.
“And I know from my time in Parliament that Kevin and Jo have been two of the leading advocates for standing up for their communities here and for the importance of live music to the local economies and to young people.”
There has been a marked decline in grass-roots venues across the UK, with numbers dropping by 35% in the space of the past decade.
UK Music has been campaigning for practical support to help venues thrive with some key measures contained in its Music Manifesto 2017 which outlines how politicians and policymakers can help ahead of the General Election.
They include business rate reforms and the introduction of a statutory UK-wide “agent of change” planning principle to protect embattled music venues.
Local music campaigners recently won a notable victory when the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, declared an intention to adopt this principle across Wales.
The Save Womanby Street campaign is also lobbying for the street to be recognised as an area of cultural significance for music and performing arts as part of Cardiff ’s local development plan.
Mr Dugher met Save Womanby Street campaigners Ewan Moor, Thom Bentley and Alex Owen as well as Rob Toogood (owner of Fuel Rock Clwb) and Richard Hawkins, the promotions and works manager for Clwb Ifor Bach, which hosted the meeting. Also attending were Kevin Brennan, the Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport (arts and heritage) and Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens.